NEWS:
Guantánamo Bay:
The first periodic
review board hearing under President Trump was held on 9 February with a
hearing for Yemeni prisoner Omar Mohammed Ali
Al-Rammah. The procedure was conducted in the same manner as it was under
President Obama. Al-Rammah has been held at Guantánamo since 2003 and is
alleged to have fought in Bosnia and Chechnya; he was kidnapped in Georgia in
2001 and handed over to the US military. His lawyer claims he had low-level
involvement in militancy and was not involved in combat against the US.
A second review was held on 28 February for Yemeni Sharqawi Al
Hajj who was held in secret prisons and tortured for two years before being
taken to Guantánamo. https://ccrjustice.org/home/press-center/press-releases/new-release-hearing-held-cia-tortured-gitmo-forever-prisoner
At the same time, three prisoners who had their review board
hearings under Obama had their pleas for release rejected: Yemenis Moath Hamza
Ahmed Al-Alwi, Said Salih Said Nashir and Uthman Abd al-Rahim Muhammad Uthman.
It is unknown whether five prisoners who have been cleared for
release by the board will be released at any time soon or if the two prisoners
heard this month will be released if their reviews are successful.
More than one month after becoming President, in spite of various
comments made about Guantánamo, the facility is still running as it was under
Barack Obama and there is no prospective date for the issue of Trump’s order on
the future of Guantánamo and its prisoners.
The Trump administration
has handed over a copy of the 2014 Senate Intelligence Committee report into
CIA torture to a federal court following an order in cases brought by current
Guantánamo prisoners. The Obama administration had previously refused to comply
with the order.
A lawyer of one of the
litigants, Abd Al-Nashiri, stated that it is “a big
deal because we know that at least one copy will be preserved for future
litigation.”
Germany’s new
president Frank-Walter Steinmeier has entered his new post with controversy over his failure in 2002, as
the politician responsible, to press for the release of Murat Kurnaz from
Guantánamo even though the German and US authorities both knew he was an
innocent man and Germany knew he had been tortured. Instead, the government
initiated measures to prevent Kurnaz from returning to the country. Kurnaz did
not return to Germany until 2006 and Steinmeier has never apologised for his
role.
Extraordinary
rendition:
Portugal jailed former CIA agent Sabrina de Sousa on 20 February pending extradition to Italy to serve a 4-year sentence for the 2003 kidnap and rendition to torture in Egypt of Milan imam Abu Omar. She is one of 26 CIA agents convicted in Italy in relation to the case, the only successful criminal case brought against renditions anywhere in the world.
Portugal jailed former CIA agent Sabrina de Sousa on 20 February pending extradition to Italy to serve a 4-year sentence for the 2003 kidnap and rendition to torture in Egypt of Milan imam Abu Omar. She is one of 26 CIA agents convicted in Italy in relation to the case, the only successful criminal case brought against renditions anywhere in the world.
On 28 February, Italy granted
her clemency and reduced her sentence to 3 years. This means she can now
consider alternative penalties to imprisonment. It is not clear if she has been
released in Portugal.
De Sousa, 61, has
fought extradition for two years and the victim Abu Omar himself has asked for
her not to be extradited or to serve her sentence. He has never received an apology
for official acknowledgement of his ordeal.
In a case brought by
the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against two CIA-contracted
psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, considered to be the architects of the
rendition torture programme, the Trump administration has said that it will act
like its predecessor by invoking the state secrets privilege to prevent two CIA
witnesses from testifying in the case. One of the witnesses, Gina Haspel, was
briefly involved in running a secret prison in Thailand where Abd Al-Nashiri
and Abu Zubaydah were waterboarded. The government has until 8 March to file a
declaration invoking the privilege. A hearing is scheduled in the case for
June.
Gina Haspel is also
the new CIA deputy director https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/03/cia-deputy-director-gina-haspel-linked-torture-thailand-black-site
LGC Activities:
The LGC’s February
Shut Guantánamo! demo marked 10 years of this regular protest outside the US
Embassy. With 41 prisoners remaining at Guantánamo, the LGC remains committed
to fighting for justice. The March demo is on 2 March at 12-1pm outside the US
Embassy and 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner, Hyde Park: https://www.facebook.com/events/181069765719469/
The LGC joined the
Stop The War Coalition’s 4 February Stop Trump’s Muslim Ban demo and march to
highlight the fact that there has been a travel ban on Muslims at Guantánamo
for over 15 years preventing the prisoners from leaving and if there is any
place that needs a Muslim ban, it is Guantánamo Bay.
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